The present invention relates to a device for assisting pulmonary functions of a patient; it can be used alone for exercising muscles involved in breathing or in combination with a nebulizer for delivery of medication to the airways of a patient. More particularly, the present invention relates to a breathing device for generating positive backpressure in the airways of the user so as to keep the airways open and restore normal breathing.
Nebulizers are some of the most widely used devices for assisting patients with breathing problems; they help deliver medication during asthma attacks, emphysema attacks and similar occasions. Nebulizers are conventionally used in emergency rooms, by patients, and medical professionals when conventional method metered dose inhalers (MDIs) fail to reverse a constriction in the airways. The nebulizers break down the liquid medicine into tiny droplets that resemble mist and then deliver the medication into the lungs and airways of the patient.
Conventionally, nebulizers dispense airway dilators. For example, when a patient is brought into an emergency room, he has an unusually high concentration of carbon dioxide in blood. The nebulizer helps deliver the much-needed dilators to the lungs and help expel the gas from the lungs. The dilators contain a chemical that reacts with the receptors in the bronchioles of the patient to open the airways. The medications may include steroids, magnesium sulfate, and bronchodilators.
However, conventional nebulizers are relatively slow, it may require up to eight hours of treatment. When a patient arrives in an acute condition that requires an immediate treatment, an ambu bag with a mask is often used. The mask seals the mouth and nose of the patient; when the bag is squeezed positive pressure forces the medication into the airways. This procedure is not free from complications. Air may be diverted into the patient""s stomach and cause gastric distention or vomiting, which in turn increases the risk of aspiration since the vomited medium may be inhaled and forced into the lungs.
Some patients cannot be helped with either nebulizers or ambu bags; they require a ventilator, an artificial breathing machine that works with an endotracheal tube inserted into the trachea of the patient. The positive pressure is much greater than when nebulizer with an ambu bag are used. Often times, excessive air is forced into the patient""s lungs. The longer a patient stays on a ventilator, the more difficult it may be to wean the patient from ventilator. Prolonged use of the ventilator tends to cause atrophy of inspiratory muscles, which may become irreversible.
This invention contemplates elimination of drawbacks associated with the prior art and provision of hand-held devices that can be equally used by the patient and by a medical professional for exercising inspiratory muscles and for delivery of medication with the help of a nebulizer.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a sealed calibrated back pressure device that would allow creation of positive pressure on the constricted airways of a patient suffering from asthma, emphysema or other respiratory diseases.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sealed back pressure breathing attachment device for a nebulizer that can be preset to create the desired amount of pressure and deliver the medication for restoring the patient""s breathing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a breathing device that would help in exercising inspiratory muscles of a patient.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved through a provision of a hand-held lightweight device that has a means for adjusting the amount of positive pressure created in the airways of the patient. The device has a hollow body with a peep valve mounted on a bracket inside the hollow body. The hollow body is provided with two through openings: an intake port and an exhalation port. An intake valve, which can be as simple as a rubber gasket, is mounted in the hollow body between the exhalation valve and an open end.
The open end may carry a mouthpiece or be suitably sized and shaped to be connected, via a manifold, to a nebulizer. The opposite closed end of the hollow body carries a means for adjusting the positive pressure. In one of the embodiments, the adjustment means is a cap that threadably engages the hollow body; in the second embodimentxe2x80x94it is an adjustable cam lever. A compression spring is mounted between the exhalation valve and the adjustment means. The calibration may be set to a desired pressure, preferably between 5 cm and 20 cm of water.